1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a projectile resistant barrier, and in particular a transparent blast or ballistic projectile resistant barrier. The barrier is comprised of a two-dimensional array of hardened tiles that are encapsulated in a resin layer. In the preferred embodiment the hardened tiles are transparent ceramic tiles, and the resin layer is transparent polyurethane. Additional transparent polycarbonate layers and glass fiber layers are also employed in the preferred embodiment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art construction of transparent blast and ballistic resistant barriers (i.e., bulletproof glass), the transparent barriers have been comprised of laminates made up of multiple layers of glass, of plastic, or of combinations of glass and plastic layers. These transparent barrier laminates provide protection against various threats based mainly on the thickness of the laminates.
However, this prior construction of transparent barriers has many disadvantages. These disadvantages include the inability of the transparent barriers to stop multiple projectiles or multiple fragments hitting the barriers in close proximity to each other. Each projectile or fragment hitting the transparent barrier typically shatters an area of the barrier. With multiple hits to the transparent barrier, the multiple shattered areas of the barrier can eliminate the ability to see through the barrier. These prior art transparent armor barriers constructed of multiple layers of transparent materials are also disadvantaged in that they have a significant weight for the size of the barrier. In addition, an effective transparent barrier has an excessive thickness, and the multiple layers of the transparent materials reduce the optical quality of the transparent barrier by reducing the light transmitted through the multiple layers.
One of the optimal prior art transparent armor barriers includes an exterior layer or an initial layer of a very hard transparent ceramic material. This material is layered over a conventional glass or plastic backing layer. This design of transparent armor barrier has a reduced weight to area ratio, a reduced thickness to area ratio, and has improved light transmittance properties. However, this design of transparent armor barrier still has the disadvantages of multiple projectile hits on the barrier producing multiple shatter patterns that can effectively eliminate the ability to see through the barrier. In addition, this type of barrier typically has a substantial manufacturing cost in producing a transparent barrier of any practical size.